Will machines ever be intelligent?

Technical advances are moving at such a rapid pace that it can be challenging to define the tomorrow we’re working toward. In The Shape of Things to Come, Microsoft Research leader Doug Burger and experts from across disciplines tease out the thorniest AI issues facing technologists, policymakers, business decision-makers, and other stakeholders today. The goal: to amplify the shared understanding needed to build a future in which the AI transition is a net positive. In this first episode of the series, Burger is joined by Nicolò Fusi of Microsoft Research and Subutai Ahmad of Numenta to examine whether today’s AI systems are truly intelligent. They compare transformer-based large language models (LLMs) with the human brain’s distributed, continuously learning architecture, exploring differences in efficiency, representation, and sensory-motor grounding. The discussion probes what intelligence really means, where current models excel or fall short, and what future AI systems might need to bridge the gap. The Shape of Things to Come podcast series: https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/research/story/the-shape-of-things-to-come/